FIRST EXPOSURE BY STAN SHOLIK
SOFTWARE REVIEW
ATHENTECH PERFECTLY
CLEAR COMPLETE V3
A major upgrade with new features and improved plug-in functionality.
With the release of Perfectly Clear Complete V3,
Athentech Imaging introduces a major upgrade to the
program that not only adds valuable new features but also
enhances the look and functionality of the plug-in. The Version 3
bundle includes the Perfectly Clear Essentials, Perfect Eyes, Perfect
Skin, Perfect Detail, Perfect Color and Perfect Exposure modules. With
this release of the collection, only Perfectly Clear Exposure is available
separately from the collection and it remains a free download.
Version 3 functions as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop (CS 6
or newer), Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (LR 5 or newer), Adobe
Photoshop Elements (version 11 or newer) and Corel PaintShop Pro
(X5 or newer). It can also be used as an external editor for Apple
Photos, Aperture and Capture One. When used in Photoshop,
the plug-in functions as a Smart Filter. It can be incorporated into
a Photoshop Action for batch processing, although I found batch
processing much easier using Lightroom. At $129 for new users, it’s
$20 less expensive than the previous version. You can install it on two
computers and they can be two Macs, two Windows or one of each. I
tested both Mac and Windows installations of version 3.0.3.
WHAT’S NEW
Updates are found throughout V3, from the interface to
the new Perfect Details and Perfect Color modules, to new sliders
providing manual adjustments, to previously available functions that
were only handled automatically. And there is a new Looks function
with prebuilt, one-click styles, including black-and-white and color film
stocks, color grades and stylized colors.
The Perfectly Clear Complete presets of the previous version are
incorporated into the Perfectly Clear Essentials module in V3. The
modules and their sub-modules are available in the Presets panel to
the left of the main preview window along with the new navigator
window. The sub-modules are also represented with icons in the
toolbar above the preview. To the right of the preview, the Control
panel holds sliders for manual adjustments to the presets. There’s also
a new histogram with clipping indicators.
New features are available for both landscape images and
portraits. Image Ambulance in the new Preprocessing subpanel allows
+/- 5 EV of adjustment for both landscapes and portraits, although
I found the extreme ends of the adjustment tended to introduce
artifacts. For landscapes, there are new sky and foliage enhancers as
well as vibrancy, black point and color fidelity controls.
For portraits you can now manually add a face if it is not
automatically selected and adjust control points. The light-diffusion
and lip-sharpening adjustments have sliders added for user
control. The skin-softening tool has three new modes for additional
control. New features include vibrancy, 12 popular blush colors in
the Makeup subpanel and a face-aware exposure adjustment that
allows adjustment of the face’s exposure separate from the photo’s
background.
USER FRIENDLINESS
While I was impressed with the interface changes found in
the previous version, V3 takes user-friendliness even further. Users
of older versions will feel right at home with the new interface while
RIGHT: The new
Looks subpanel
offers an array
of one-click
styles and a
strength slider.
PH
OTO
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STAN
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